1891.] [Ruschenberger. 



In reference to the people he says : "The Yankees have a great deal of 

 frankness about them. If they are very desirous of knowing your cir- 

 cumstances, and of course, inquisitive, they are willing to tell you their 

 own. Knowledge, religion, civility and money are more equally diffused 

 in New England than in the Middle and Southern States ; but there are 

 not as many men of brilliant talents or true piety more common civility 

 but less polish, and few opulent men, and girls of course. * * * 

 They have a fondness for title and distinction. The most respectable men 

 by far are the tavern-keepers. * * * You will hear that Judge 



keeps there, and that General five miles this side, and that 



they are nice men ; a nice man and a fine Yankee are equivalent terms. 

 * * * They call all kinds of vegetables sauce." 



Dr. Emerson, who was probably the first physician settled there, prac- 

 tised his profession at Silver Lake nearly two years. 



At the instance of a friend, Mr. Andrew Hodge, he was appointed, No- 

 vember, 1818, surgeon of a merchant ship, called the Superior, Captain 

 John Hamilton, bound to China. 



He joined the vessel, which had already dropped down the river, De- 

 cember 7, 1818. The weather was stormy and the wind adverse. The 

 Superior did not get to sea till the 12th. 



The cabin mess, composed of the officers of the ship and three passen- 

 gers, counted eleven persons, a number quite sufficient to shield them 

 from a sense of weariness or solitude. 



Dr. Emerson kept a journal. A brief notice of the nature of sea-sick- 

 ness is recorded the first day at sea. 



On the 13th, out of sight of land, a brig from Prince's Island, coast of 

 Africa, bound to Rhode Island, was spoken. She had been seventy 

 days at sea and was short of water. As the quarantine laws were then 

 very rigidly observed at Marseilles, the port to which the Superior was 

 bound, to avoid risk of vitiating her clean bill of health which might be 

 consequent upon direct personal communication with any vessel or place 

 before reaching Marseilles, casks of water were thrown overboard and 

 picked up by the brig. 



On the 14th, being then in the Gulf stream, the Doctor notes in his jour- 

 nal the use of the thermometer in navigation. 



January 26, 1819, the Superior arrived at Marseilles, thirty-five days 

 from the Capes of the Delaware. 



As soon as the ship entered the rnole, the captain went to the Health 

 Office, but was required to remain in his boat outside of the grate, and to 

 throw his papers into a tub of vinegar presented to him, the object being 

 to destroy any contagious matter they might contain. Letters brought 

 for persons on shore, after being cut through in several places to give 

 easy access to the vinegar, were treated in the same manner. Every ves- 

 sel arriving was required to undergo quarantine. No person was per- 

 mitted to land, and none to visit her from the shore. A guard was sta- 

 tioned on board to enforce observance of the rules. At the time the 

 plague prevailed in the Barbary States. 



